The good news for Dustin Johnson is that he’s still the leader at the 144th Open Championship.
The bad news is that he and most of the afternoon players ran out of daylight and will have to come back early Saturday under possible high-wind conditions.
A three-hour rain delay came early as St. Andrews was deluged with at least three inches of rain.
Danny Willett set the early pace and posted nine-under par before Johnson teed off.
Johnson continued to dominate the Old Course with his drives, bombing the ball ridiculous distances off the tee. He nearly remained perfect but finally made a bogey at the 11th hole when high winds helped him miss a short par putt. Other than that, he kept doing what he did the first day. He was still three-under through 13 holes and a shot clear of Willett with the possibility of going to 11-under at the par five 14th when play resumes at 7 a.m.
The formula for Johnson was the same as day one — accurate drives, short irons and wedges into most of the par fours.
He will have plenty of challengers, however.
Following Willett at nine-under are Jason Day and Paul Lawrie, who are still in the midst of their second rounds. Day is eight-under through 11 holes, Lawrie through 12.
Adam Scott, Zach Johnson, Louie Oosthuizen, Marc Warren and Robert Streb were done early and in at seven-under through 36 holes.
Jordan Spieth, playing with Johnson, found plenty of struggles on Friday. Spieth’s putter began to misfire and a couple of missed short putts resulted in bogeys. He was able to bounce back but was basically treading water and he’s even par through 13 and still at five-under par, five behind Johnson, his playing partner.
The third member of the Johnson-Spieth group was the hottest player on the course early. Hideki Matsuyama birdied his first four holes to start his second round, then added two more front nine birdies to shoot 30 going out. He was even on the inward nine through 13 holes but in solid contention at six-under.
The afternoon players were hit with stronger winds in the 20-25 mile per our range but the real challenge could come early Saturday with stronger winds expected to sweep over the Old Course as Johnson and the rest go out to finish their second round of play.
